3/4-in plywood is pretty heavy stuff. I think the seams might be more of an issue than the plywood sliding around, but I've seen some bad seams on "real" dance floors as well, especially the portable squares.

I posted a similar query awhile back about my concrete basement floor. PM me if you want details on what products I've found at the local home improvement stores.

It's wonderful to have a dance floor at home. I saw one at an acquaintance's home in Washington, D.C. and I was impressed. It was just big enough for progressive dances, but just great for Salsa, Lindy, and other spot dances...

Has anyone ever laid a dance floor before? Snap & Lock? Or underlayer w/ wood slats?
I wonder if I should try to do it myself or have it installed for $3 s.f.? (Installion plus flooring and underlayer)
I can get the wood flooring pretty cheap - $100, or could get it installed about $300.
Any advice much appreciated!

Years ago, my first studio had ordered a floor from Harlequin that never arrived. We laid (ourselves) a 30'X30' sub-flooring (partical board) in preparation. In waiting, we simply sanded and poly-urethaned the boards, and were blown away by how well they danced, and even more so by how long they lasted. 6 months later when the flooring arrived, it was the wrong one. We sent it back, and continued using the partical board. 4 months later, we cancelled the dance floor, and continued to use the partical board for the next 10 years (resurfacing it every 9 - 12 months).

Keep in mind that we are talking about a business floor that was used daily for ballroom, latin, and showcase (jazz and tap). Such in your home for private usage would be a no-brainer, I would think. In our main room, we did lay (ourselves) a laminate tongue and groove flooring that lasted equally as well. If you are interested in doing it yourself, I'm certain there are hundreds of instructions on the web, but I will be glad to talk with you via PM.

I've wondered about this myself. Would love to have a space to dance in my house and it's an old house with hardwood floors but unfortunately in no shape for dancing. We're talking nails sticking up, loose floorboards, etc :lol:

We do have limited space in our kitchen which has linoleum flooring and that works pretty well for fairly stationary dances such as Swing and Salsa...but that's about it. I'm actually going to start teaching a friend of mine to dance tomorrow. Unfortunately not the girl I've mentioned before...she says she'd love to learn but hasn't made much effort to accomodate when we can meet, so I'm teaching one of my male friends now, lol. And I guess we'll just use our kitchen since I'm going to start him off with East Coast Swing.

On that note, I don't mean to hijack the thread but what are your guys thoughts on men dancing together?

Our instructor actually says trying to follow another man's lead gives you a better sense for leading since you've put yourself in the girl's shoes and will have realized what does and doesn't work very well or whatever.

Well here's why I ask. I was going to suggest to this friend that I teach him to dance and I could be his practice partner until he has the confidence to actually go to a dance. I'd get the benefit of learning to follow, which would give me a better sense for leading and also improve my ability to teach girls. (and a lot of girls have asked me to but it's hard when you don't know the ladies footwork very well) However, if we tried to go some place more public (say when we get to the traveling dances) what is the social perception of two guys dancing together...that it's gay, right?

Has anyone ever laid a dance floor before? Snap & Lock? Or underlayer w/ wood slats?
I wonder if I should try to do it myself or have it installed for $3 s.f.? (Installion plus flooring and underlayer)
I can get the wood flooring pretty cheap - $100, or could get it installed about $300.
Any advice much appreciated!

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have literally laid many in my different studios over the yrs.

Its not that difficult to do.. What surface are you applying it to ?.. and, will it touch both or one side of the room?.. in addition.. is it in a basement ? or above ground ?.. all important aspects.

wouldnt this move right out from under your feet? how do you secure it?

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No, 3/4" is pretty heavy stuff. Also, I was really thinking CCCC could essentially build a modular floor like the floor rental folks, with connective slats underneath that the floor could be screwed to.

Alternately, CCCC, since you'll be putting this down over a ceramic tile floor, an even better suggestion, which would require a minimum of actual fabrication work: just buy some laminate flooring at Home Despot or IKEA. You'll need to cut some panels to lay it out properly, since panels need to be staggered, but it would be easily removable. I did my kitchen floor in laminate, about 8x10, for $300. Laminates usually require a thin foam underlayment, so it's not rock hard.

On that note, there are three different compressed wood panels in 3/4 inch thickness that people refer to as particle board: Medium Density Fiber board (MDF), particle board, and Oriented Strand Board (OSB), in order of decreasing density.

OSB is very coarse looking, looking if its made up of chunks of wood (which it is), and I can't imagine anyone thinking of using it for flooring. It is common to use it as a subfloor.

Particle board and MDF are basically sawdust, with particle board appearing like it's made from coarse sawdust, and MDF appearing quite smooth. The difference between the two are in the density of the wood particles; MDF is a bit more dense and heavy, than particle board. It also has less expansions from temperature than particle board.

I have no experience with these as dance floor, but I wonder if MDF might be a better choice than particle board, or even plywood (no surface veneer to splinter) if you wanted to use it that way.

All will soak up water and swell up, but MDF doesn't absorb water as fast as the others. Varnishing seals particle board and MDF and stops the water swelling issue very well.

I, myself, would do a snap-lock wood floor over the tile that you want to cover. It would look best of all and can just be left in place, and can be removed later, when it's time to move. Of course, depends on your DIY skills.
Opinions?

Yah, I'd not use OSB. Ugly to boot. OP's issue will prolly be a trade-off between cost and portability.

I've never pulled up laminate, so I don't know how reusable it might be if CCCC moves with the funky pseudo-lapjoint edges. I intend to eventually put laminate throughout my first floor (plywood subfloor), but the total area is large enough with enough cutouts to try my patience, budget, and DIY skills.

At one point, I considered putting down modular rubber flooring and overlaying that with laminate on my concrete basement floor. Never got to it though.